**_LONDON_**: Real Madrid have once again set the pace for football’s financial elite, retaining their position at the summit of Deloitte’s latest Football Money League as English giant Manchester United slid to their lowest ranking in the report’s history, underlining a widening gap between sustained commercial excellence and on-pitch underperformance.
According to the 29th edition of the annual survey, Real Madrid generated revenues of around €1.16bn during the 2024-25 season, becoming the first club to approach €1.2bn in a single year. It is a figure that places the Spanish champions almost €200m clear of their nearest rivals and reinforces their status as the sport’s dominant economic force .
Deloitte highlighted Madrid’s diversified income model as the key driver of their success. Commercial revenues surged by more than 20%, powered by new global sponsorships, merchandising growth and the continuing impact of the renovated Santiago Bernabéu stadium, which has opened up year-round matchday and event income.
Notably, the club achieved its record haul despite not lifting either LaLiga or the Champions League during the season, underlining the resilience of its business operations .
Behind them, Barcelona returned to second place with revenues just under €1bn, while Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain completed a top four that, for the first time in the Money League’s history, contained no Premier League representatives .
The English picture was led by Liverpool, who climbed to fifth globally to become the Premier League’s highest-earning club. Deloitte pointed to Champions League participation, domestic success and creative use of Anfield for concerts and non-football events as central to Liverpool’s rise .
In stark contrast, Manchester United fell to eighth, their worst-ever position after once topping the table in 10 of its previous editions. Revenues of €793m represented a marginal year-on-year increase, but a sharp drop in broadcast income — largely due to the absence of Champions League football — exposed the financial cost of sustained struggles on the pitch .
Other Premier League clubs remained prominent, with Manchester City sixth, Arsenal seventh, and Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea completing the top ten, meaning six English sides still feature among the world’s ten richest.
Overall, the top 20 clubs generated a record €12.4bn in combined revenue, an 11% increase on the previous year, as matchday, broadcast and commercial streams all hit new highs. Deloitte noted that investment in multi-use stadiums, global branding and emerging markets is increasingly separating the most resilient clubs from those reliant on short-term sporting success — a divide now clearly illustrated by Real Madrid’s continued ascent and Manchester United’s continuing slide.
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